1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable computer, and more particularly, to a portable computer which can change placements of a display thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computing devices have become an indispensable part of our daily life. With the fast development of touch technologies, most hand-held devices or electronic devices such as tablet PC, smart phone, and PDA now provide touch panels instead of mouse or keyboard as input devices, these devices are equipped with operating system supporting touch functions to enable intuitive and convenient operations.
As notebook PCs are usually equipped with QWERTY keyboards and touch pads for input functions and they also use operating system which does not support touch functions or interfaces which cannot recognize touch gestures, so few notebook PCs provide touch functions or designs in the past. However, as software vendors are rolling out new operating system which can support touch functions and people are becoming familiar with touch gestures required to operate tablet PCs or smart phones, it is now necessary for manufactures to provide functions to transform their notebook PCs into tablet PCs. For allowing a display to be rotated around a main body of a notebook PC, a prior art notebook PC uses a support arm or linkage assembly to support the display and pivotally connect the display to the main body, and uses a corresponding sliding assembly to change placements of the display.
In prior art technique such as Taiwan patent No. I316666 (U.S. Pat. No. 7,184,263B1), a portable computer uses a sheet-like support element to support a display and to let the display slide relative to the computer body via guide grooves on both sides of the keyboard to stand upright. In another prior art technique such as Taiwan patent No. 566583, a display of a notebook PC rotatably moves relative to a base via a plurality of linkage rods to change a viewing angle for the user.
However, for the structure of a rotatable display relative to the main body, the prior art has to take into account a keyboard module and to place corresponding sliding elements in a way that the sliding elements are not hindered by the keyboard module to let the sliding elements operate smoothly. Therefore, the sliding elements are usually placed at two sides of the keyboard module and are formed symmetrically to move the display smoothly. However, this design comprises complicated design which involves the operations of pivoting, linking and sliding and various linkage elements to work. Therefore, it is disadvantageous to assemble and to operate the mechanism. Besides, with a complicated mechanism and exposed support and linkage mechanisms on both sides of the display, it is aesthetically unpleasant and is possible to hurt the user if the user's finger accidentally gets pinched between these mechanisms. Additionally, when the display is moving, the support/sliding elements on both sides of the keyboard module have to move symmetrically and synchronously to avoid any obstruction during the operation; if one sliding element is damaged, then the display cannot rotate or move as required.
Therefore, it is necessary to provide a structure which can slide and rotate the display without being interfered by the keyboard module for the portable computer.